Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP

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Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP

Image 3 of 5

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP

Image 4 of 5

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Shackle, an 11-year-old African lioness lays on an altar at the First Baptist Church on Sept. 16 in Crystal Beach. The lion and her owner waded through Hurricane Ike floodwaters to the church after Ike hit.

Photo: Tony Gutierrez, AP

Image 5 of 5

Zoo owner who holed up in church with lion during Ike dies

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It was a photo that captivated the world: a full grown lioness sheltering among sleeping bags and blankets on the altar of a Bolivar Peninsula Baptist church as Hurricane Ike raged outside.

Family and friends of Michael Ray Kujawa, a Crystal Beach zoo owner who swam through flood waters with the giant beauty in 2008, mourned Kujawa's death at a memorial service at the local cemetery Tuesday.

Kujawa, who ran the zoo for 10 years, died April 17 aged 61, after a long illness, leaving a legacy as a big cat lover and adventurer.

"He was always the fun uncle that we would hang out with because he would let us do things my dad wouldn't let us," said his former step-niece Brenda Cook, 51, from Kemah.

Cook remembers the first time she saw Kujawa with a lion back in the mid 1980s, when her uncle showed up to family holiday celebrations with a six-month-old cub.

"She was on a leash, she was lying down in the living room. She actually lunged at my son, I don't know if she wanted to play or she wanted to eat him," recalled Cook, noting that the dangers posed by the animal never fazed Kujawa.

"I think he just loved them. This lion lived in his house like a dog, it would sleep in the bed, it was just everywhere with him," Cook added.

On the night Ike on struck on Sept. 13, 2008, the zookeeper and his current lion were just as inseparable.

Kujawa had persuaded 11-year-old Shackle to leave her zoo enclosure with him but when the storm surge crashed over the roads off Bolivar Peninsula, the pair became stuck. Their only option was to wade to the safety of the Crystal Beach First Baptist Church, much to the surprise of the people already sheltering there.

"They worked pretty well together, actually," Kujawa told the Associated Press at the time. "When you have to swim, the lion doesn't care about eating nobody."

As the ordeal progressed, a congenial spirit spread through the mixed species crowd.

"That little old fella is just as tame as a kitten," said shrimper Richard Jones, who was also holed up at the church.

The roast pork they fed her might also have helped.

Kujawa had failed to persuade another of his cats, a 400 pound tiger, into a travel trailer to escape the storm, leaving her at the zoo to fend for herself.

"I couldn't risk my own life and the lion's life to stay there with her, I had to get to higher ground," Kujawa said, "As soon as the storm was over I went to check on her and she was alive and doing good. But she was as mean as hell."

Both big cats were re-housed in state sanctuaries after the storm. They have since died.

Mike Kujawa is survived by his sisters, Linda Kujawa and Marie Dudley, brother-in-law David Dudley, two nephews and a niece.